FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why were stamps perforated ?

For many years, postage stamps could be used for payment of small bills and could be cashed on presenting them at a Post Office. This naturally led to the risk of the stamps being stolen.

However, the Post Office would not accept stamps that had been perforated, thus reducing their value if stolen. In addition, unlike previous security methods such as underprinting, the original owner of the stamp could still be identified even if the stamp were used as postage.

Who Invented the Perfin ?

The invention of the perfin is credited to Joseph Sloper who, after much effort, finally persuaded The Post Office to allow the perforation of postage stamps. The official "first day" was the 14th March 1868. His case was no doubt strengthed by a well publicised incident involving a provisions shop keeper charged with receiving some 7,000 "stolen" postage stamps which had been accepted in payment for bread and cheese, the stamps coming from errand-boys and junior clerks.

The firm that he founded - J. Sloper & Co. - established a sizeable perforating business which none of their competitors could overtake. The firm was taken over in the 1990s.
Click here to see a photograph of Sloper's offices in the City of London

However the original idea had been suggested by Sir Henry Bessemer in 1832. At the time, the world's first postage stamps were still 8 years away and hence the application was for the protection of the revenue stamps of the time.

Did anyone else manufacture perfin machinery ? A number of other concerns were also involved in applying perfins to postage stamps. An on-going task within the Perfin Society is to try and assign particular perfin dies to particular concerns by looking at characteristics of perfins. The example opposite has the 'o' of 'Co' within the 'C', a characteristic of a number of other dies all of which tend to have Glasgow postmarks, hinting that the dies were made by the same local firm.

What is the earliest perfin ?

The Post Office finally accepted the postal use of perfins on the 14th March 1868. However the earlist cancellation on a perfin is currently November 1868, with the earliest cover being dated 5th January 1869. Indeed dated copies from the late 1860's are not common. A characteristic of the earliest perfin dies is the arrangement of the letters, which are arranged so as to avoid puncturing The Queen's profile.

An Early Cancellation on GWR perfin (Illustration courtesy of Joe Coulbourne)

How many Perfins are there ?

23,597 different perfin designs had so far been catalogued on British postage stamps as at 1st November 2007, more than for any other country, and new dies are being regularly discovered. It is thought that around 25,000 different dies may exist. Some 1,000 different perfins can be found on the 1d Red which illustrates just how quickly the perfin became a popular method of protecting stocks of stamps (the 1d red being withdrawn in 1880, 12 years after perfins were introduced).

Approximately one third of perfin dies have had their user identified. Typically a further 50+ perfin users are identified every couple of months, these new identities being published in the society's Bulletin.

What's the most common Perfin ?

The Great Western Railway were once prolific users of perfins and hence their perfins are quite common on the early issues. Indeed I was once fortunate enough to buy 2,000 1d Lilac perfins and whilst this lot contained a good range of dies probably a 1/3rd of them were perfinned GWR.
On later stamp issues, 1st place must go to the PAC design used by the Prudential Insurance Co., with 2nd place is probably a tie between IL/EA (Inner London Education Authority) and GLC (Greater London Council). These account for the majority of perfins to be found on the decimal Machin issues.

Can all G.B. stamps be found perforated ?

Almost all stamps in use between 1868 and the late 1950's can be found with perfin. However, from 1960, with the Post Office regularly producing commemorative issues combined with the decline in perfin use in later years it should come as no suprise that many of the later issues are not recorded perfinned.

Link to list of pre-1961 issues not known perfinned.

Were only postage stamps perfinned ?

Telegraph Stamp		Contract Note		1d Inland Revenue

Revenue stamps were equally open to theft and hence such issues also turn up perfinned. Although the primary focus of the Perfin Society is the study of perfins on postage stamps, these other issues are popular with many members of the society.

Are perfins still used ?

In later years, many firms switched to using franking machines. In addition current postage rates are worth only a fraction of their 1860's values in real terms. The need to use perfins has thus greatly diminished. However, a few perfin users still remain, the majority being used by local councils.

How much are they worth ?

As a general rule, a perforated stamp is a damaged stamp and as such a figure of 10% - 20% of catalogue value. However to a perfin collector it is the perfin die itself that tends to be the main interest, so high value stamps may drop to a lower percentage than the more common stamps. I good illustration of this can be found with the 1d red issues, where the value of a perfin on a common plate is higher than without the perfin, yet little more is paid for the scarcer plates.

Perfinned stamps on cover are worth more when the cover identifies the user of the perfin. A perfin on a cover with no user identity is of less interest.

There are of course particular dies that are worth a premium, some due to true scarcity or others being more desirable such as elaborate designs. However there is no publication that can be used to value individual dies as such a task woul be next to impossible. However a good guide is to follow the results of the Perfin Society's auction.

I have a perfin that is reversed. Is it worth more ?

Reversed perfins come about naturally so are not worth more. Often a sheet of stamps would be folded prior to perforation, as a result of which various orientations are encountered. This is illustrated in the strip above, which also illustrates the problem of folding prior to perforation in that the stamps towards the bottom of the folded sheet are often not fully punctured (right hand stamp in above illustration).

Similarly, horizontal folding would result in perfins that are both inverted and reversed.

How do I join the Perfin Society ?

Click here for joining information